Certificated Location of the Year 2023 Winners

As one of the shortlisted CLs in this year's CLOY competition it's really sad to read the negative and cynical comments on this thread .

Every member of CAMC was invited to vote in the CL of the Year (CLOY) competition.  It was advertised in the club magazine and within the club's social media channels.  If you didn't spot that advertising that's not the fault of CAMC. 

• There were dozens of CLs which received at least one nomination and all of them were emailed by the club to inform them they'd been nominated.

• There was a threshold of number of votes which, when reached, automatically put a CL onto the shortlised list. Those CLs were highlighted with a roundel disc on their CAMC website listing.
• The winners for each category were those which received the highest number of votes. 

No underhand tactics by anyone, it was purely down to member votes.  If you didn't like the result but didn't vote for your favourite I'm not sure you should be complaining .

For the first time in 10 years we actively promoted the competition this year asking visitors to vote for their favourits CL site.  It didn't matter to us if they voted for us or another CL site, just that they voted in order to show their support for the CL network.  Obviously, we were delighted to receive any votes and even more delighted to find ourselves in the list of shortlisted sites.  Many of our visitors weren't aware of the CLOY competition therefore our active promotion of it raised awareness amongst members.

As Cornersteady has quite rightly stated, there is nothing wrong with asking visitors to vote.  It happens in all walks of life whether you're a charity seeking to win funds or a restaurant chain seeking more customers, it's a solid business tactic.  It was your choice to vote or not if a CL asked you.

As a result of so many CL owners promoting CLOY this year member votes were up by 250% compared to previous years.  That's good isn't it?  It means more exposure for the CL network in general.  By being shortlisted we have also been able to raise the profile of our CL site which has brought us additional bookings. 

Every CL which runs as a business (as we do) needs to actively promote themselves to stay in business.  Does it really matter if that promotion is by way of advertising on Facebook, here on Club Together or by asking for votes in a competition specifically for CL sites?

Richard and I congratulate all the worthy winners of the competition.  They all do a wonderful job running their CL sites and welcoming CAMC members.

Skybarn Farm CL, Lincoln 

(Adult only, fully serviced hard standings, free WiFi, a 2.5 mile private dog walk and perfectly positioned to explore everything historic Lincoln and beautiful Lincolnshire have to offer)

Skybarn Farm CL . 

Very well put , wholeheartedly agree with your comments, well done for meeting the negativity on this post head on .

Whilst I agree with most of Nicola's (Skybarn) post above, I don’t think anyone has suggested there were underhand tactics at play.

For my part, I merely reported my own experience of, what seemed to me, to be undue pushiness. No doubt that happens only in a minority of cases.

The whole concept of exempted 5 van sites, no matter which organisation certificates them, is something we and the site owners need to cherish to ensure the system continues.

I'd just like to say that I've never been asked by any CL to vote or nominate them.

I'd like to put on record that if this happens that I am fully open to any bribe or inducement that the owner wishes to bestow on me. Even willing to nominate more than one.

Well done the winners and all those nominated.

It’s seldom we end up on an AO site, we don’t actively seek them out, but it’s not just CLs that consider AO or dog free status, it’s common across different providers away from both Clubs. Most have a very good reason, we know that in the case of some of the AO CLs we have used, they might have fishing ponds, or might be a working farm where there’s lots of farm movement around.
We did visit a CL where a group of children were allowed to run very unsupervised by their inebriated parents (staggering by 11.30am) and other visitors had property damaged. The owner had to sort things out, and move them off. He was most upset, came round for a cup of tea and a chat with us. He considered going AO, but we said it was just possibly an isolated incident. He was worried about his regular customers. As far as I know, it’s still children welcome. But that the simple factor that might put some owners off, having to trust parents to supervise their children at all times. Farms/fisheries can be dangerous places. Not sure if insurance is higher.

Being a very regular user of CL's is the competition something that you get involved with by nominating or voting?

David, I did attempt to reply to your above question yesterday, but for some reason it was removed, so sorry for the delay in responding.

I do not get involved because of the excessive measures taken by a particular CL owner, which appear not to be an isolated case, as indicated by TW.

Hopefully this post will be allowed to remain!